Carer’s leave policy

Carer’s leave is available to employees who wish to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

The basic right

The right to carer’s leave enables employees to take up to one week off work in any rolling twelve-month period for the purpose of providing or arranging care for a dependant of theirs who has a long-term care need. It applies to those who give notice of an intention to take carer’s leave on or after 6 April 2024.

Who’s eligible?

It’s a day one right, but the employee must want to be absent from work to provide or arrange care for the dependant with the long-term care need, i.e. they can’t be taking time off for any other reason. A person is the employee’s dependant for these purposes if they are one of the following: (1) their spouse or civil partner; (2) their child; (3) their parent; (4) someone who lives in their household, otherwise than by reason of being their boarder, employee, lodger or tenant; or (5) someone who reasonably relies on them to provide or arrange care. A dependant has a long-term care need if they: (1) have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months; (2) have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010; or (3) require care for a reason connected with their old age. Where the employee provides or arranges care for more than one dependant with a long-term care need, they still only qualify for one week of carer’s leave in any rolling twelve-month period.

Maximum and minimum periods

The maximum period of carer’s leave in any rolling twelve-month period is one continuous week, and the minimum period is half a working day. The employee doesn’t need to take their leave on consecutive days though, so they could take it in multiples of individual half-days or whole days throughout the twelve-month period, up to a maximum of one week. It can also be taken on any working day of the week. The employee must comply with notice requirements before they can take carer’s leave. Our Carer’s Leave Policy covers these requirements and all the other essential provisions of the statutory carer’s leave scheme.

Pay

There’s no statutory right for employees to be paid for carer’s leave. So, any payment of salary will be at your absolute discretion. If you do exercise your discretion to pay, ensure you do so in a fair and non-discriminatory way.